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Born Thomas Duane Arnold in Ottumwa, Iowa, the son of Linda Kay (née Graham) and Jack Arnold.[1][2] He has six siblings. His mother abandoned the family when he was a child, and he and his siblings were raised by their father. He was sexually abused from age 4–7 by a male babysitter.[3]

In the early 1980s, Arnold had a prop-based comedy routine called "Tom Arnold and the Goldfish Review."[7]Roseanne Barr brought him in as a writer for her television sitcom, Roseanne. He married her in 1990, after she divorced her first husband. Arnold wrote himself into the show as the character "Arnie Thomas" (a play on his name)[citation needed]. The couple's marriage attracted media and especially tabloid attention due to their sometimes outrageous behavior. In 1992, Arnold starred in his own sitcom, The Jackie Thomas Show. Airing after Roseanne on ABC, the show lasted only 18 episodes.

In 1993, Arnold and Barr bought a house together in Arnold's hometown of Eldon, Iowa and opened a restaurant, 'Roseanne and Tom's Big Food Diner' nearby. (The diner served loosemeat sandwiches similar to the specialty of the fictional Lanford Lunch Box on Roseanne, which in turn was based on the real-life Canteen Lunch in the Alley in Ottumwa.) Both appeared in the 1993 movie The Woman Who Loved Elvis, filmed in Ottumwa.[8] Arnold and Barr divorced in 1994, and their restaurant closed in 1995.

Scannell said in an interview with Consequence of Sound for the song's 10th anniversary, that: "Steve, Tom and I were just noodling around in Steve's in-home studio when Tom started throwing off lines in a Madonna falsetto, one of which was 'He is everything inside of you that you wish you could be.' I got him to sing it like I would, not like Madonna, and he added the lines, 'I am everything you want, I am everything you need' and Tom's genius became the chorus."

In Nov. 2000, Arnold played the role of Al Raymond in the Baywatch Hawaii Season 2 episode (The Cage).

Arnold had his first romantic leading man part in the 2005 movie Happy Endings. That same year, Arnold starred in The Kid & I. From 2008–11, he hosted the CMT show My Big Redneck Wedding.[9] He hosted CMT's The Biggest Redneck Wedding Ever in 2008, in which he served as the wedding planner, created a wedding that exceeded the dreams of a couple who wanted to be married in a mud bog, and performed the actual ceremony.[10]
CMT also made three series of "My Big Redneck Vacation" presented by Arnold and featuring the Clampet Family from Shreveport Louisiana.

Arnold's role as a child molester in Gardens of the Night sparked revelations that he had been a victim of sexual abuse in his childhood. He decided to take on the role to shed more light on the issue.[11]

In January 2017, Tom Arnold was revealed as a celebrity contestant on the Australian edition of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!.
He was the first evictee from the jungle, after 17 days, and stated he was paid between $US600,000 and $US700,000 for his participation in the program.[12] In June 2017, Arnold filed a lawsuit against companies Network Ten and 'A List Entertainment' for defrauding him for being on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. Arnold claims that he was promised a payment of $425,000 and a comedy tour in Australia. However, he was missing $140,000 in payment and Network Ten backed out of the comedy tour.[13]

Long Time (2017 song by American rock band Blondie) was written by American singer/songwriter Debbie Harry after observing Arnold at a Hollywood party. Asked why she was inspired to write their hit song about Arnold, Harry said: "I watched him interact with all these people that are his great friends, and the first thing I wrote for the song was 'I can make you think everybody wants to be your friend' on Google Docs and the rest of it followed suit to that line."

Arnold met comedian Roseanne Barr when she saw his act in 1983. Their relationship was complicated by his alcoholism and drug addiction,[14] but eventually he became sober. The two married in 1990 and divorced in 1994. In an April 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Arnold discussed why when he divorced Barr, he did not take any alimony.[15] During the next ten years, Arnold married two subsequent times. Both marriages ended in divorce. In August 2008, Arnold broke his scapula in a motorcycle accident on the Pacific Coast Highway.[16]

Over Thanksgiving weekend 2009, Arnold married his fourth wife, Ashley Groussman, in Maui before 75 guests. Dax Shepard served as Arnold's best man.[17] He appeared December 10, 2009 on the late night talk show Asia Uncut.[18] The couple have two children and four dogs.[19][20]

In 2016, Arnold's chest tattoo - formerly Barr's face until he covered it with Stephen King's face in 1994 - was added to GQ's list of Best, Worst and Weirdest Celebrity Tattoos.[21]